"If I were making a list of my favorite TV shows of 2014 right now, sitting at No. 1 would be a junky-looking, subtitled light drama from 2008 about the love lives of single Modern Orthodox Jews living in Jerusalem".

(Willa Paskin, The Slate, June 30, 2014)

An 'Israeli pop culture phenomenon' "

(Yair Rosenberg, the Jewish Review of Books)

"Srugim takes as its starting point the generation of Modern Orthodox Jews who are simultaneously extremely observant and also, genuinely, contemporary. (The title means knitted, and refers to the stitching of a style of yarmulke, as well the characters’ full integration into Israeli society). It begins with its characters going on a familiar series of bad dates—the blind date, the speed date, the date that devolves into a fight about salaries—clichés that, as with everything about Srugim, are lightly reinvigorated by religion. The closet case, sleeping with an ex, losing one’s virginity, trying to advance one’s career, weekly dinners with friends: Srugim puts all of these recognizable beats in a new cultural context. It is comfort food you’ve never tasted before. Eat up.

Yifat, Hodaya, Nati, Amir, and Reut live in a Jerusalem neighborhood jokingly referred to as the Katamon swamp, for the quagmire that is its singles scene. They wear chaste-but-off-the-rack clothes, have careers, and want to marry for love, but they are also devout, keep kosher, faithfully observe Sabbath, and don’t touch members of the opposite sex before marriage. They are all, except for the once-married Amir, virgins. Needless to say, their dating lives have a real sense of urgency—though it’s shortchanging their beliefs to ascribe that only to sexual frustration. On Srugim, it’s not just parents, siblings, and smug marrieds who want the protagonists to couple off and procreate—it is God".

Winner Best Drama Series, Israeli Academy of Film and Television Awards 2009

Winner Best Script, Israeli Academy of Film and Television Awards 2009-2010

Winner Best Actress, (Ya'el Sharoni), Israeli Academy of Film and Television Awards 2009

Winner Best Costume Design, Israeli Academy of Film and Television Awards 2009

Nominated for the Best Director (Laizy Shapiro), Best Actor (Ohad Knoler) and Best Actress (Yael Sharoni), Israeli Academy of Film and Television Awards 2009

Nominated for Best Drama, Best Script, Best Director and two double nominations for the Best Actor – to Knoller and Amos Tamam – and Best Actress, again to Sharoni and Sharon, Israeli Academy of Film and Television Awards 2010

"It's really the first time that the religious-Zionist community has been represented in a non-stereotyped way on television.... Religious characters are usually cartoon-like in their superficiality, either because of malice or because of ignorance...."

(prof.Jeffrey Woolf, Bar-Ilan University)

"Turns out, nothing revitalizes Sex and the City plot points quite like chastity".

Srugim performs the magic trick of reviving the marriage plot, the narrative engine that powered everything from Shakespeare to Austen, but has lost much of its force now that marriage is no longer the only socially acceptable way to have sex. It is no longer a one-time only proposition from which one can escape only at the risk of the condemnation of parents, community, and God. But in the world of Srugim, that’s still exactly what marriage is—which gives a recognizable, realistic 21st-century TV show the stakes of a 19th-century novel. That’s a feat only achieved in recent pop-culture history by some dashing, sparkly vampires.

(Willa Paskin, The Slate, 2014)

New Hit Israeli TV Series

"Using humor to attract secular viewers (who might not otherwise be interested in the series), Shapiro deliberately shows that the characters are human beings, instead of ideological and/or religious stereotypes. They have personal and religious conflicts; they are much more pluralistic and diverse than one might have thought; and they are not perfect! As an example of the latter, Shapiro talked about how these young people cut corners in their orthodoxy – in one scene, a young woman has already lit Shabbat candles when her cell phone rings, so she asks a roommate to answer for her! This is meant to show that these people are not so rigid in their relationship to observance, as you might have thought".

"This TV series succeeds in casting aside the one-dimensional stereotype of Orthodox Jews that had previously been seen on Israeli TV screens. Instead, it portrays a vibrant, young and exciting community, dealing with issues and conflicts as they try to find their way in contemporary Israeli society".

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The smash-hit Israeli TV series Srugim explores the world of young professional singles in the Modern Orthodox community of Jerusalem. Continue your journey or come fall in love with the show that has made people laugh and cry.